June Something Day 5

June Something Day 5: Compare and/or contrast your very first fandom obsession and your very latest fandom obsession.

ok, very first fandom obsession was the movie 9, dir. Shane Acker, released 2009. this would have been at the beginning of seventh grade. (side note: i was also a big fan of Harry Potter and Star Wars in elementary school, but i didn't know what fandom was then and i didn't do any fannish activities back then.) i saw the trailer and i was hooked, probably the most excited i'd been about a movie since Revenge of the Sith. i saw it multiple times in theaters, and i was fully obsessed.

at some point while searching for 9 content i discovered 9 fanart, most likely on deviantArt. and from there i discovered fanfiction.net, and began to read and write 9 fanfiction. i think i was in that fandom somewhere around 3-9 months, and posted 2 fics for it (both WIPs that didn't get finished), before i moved on to Order of the Stick.

as for my latest fandom obsession... hmm, do i go with Magnus Archives because it's the thing i got into most recently, or do i go with Hollow Knight because, while i first played it several months before i got into TMA, i'm currently more obsessed with it than i am with TMA? let's go with Hollow Knight.

comparisons... okay, both 9 and Hollow Knight are post-apocalyptic settings. from what i recall, 9 features nine "stitchpunk" dolls that are a foot or so tall, animated by a mad scientist (i think?), left to roam the wreckage of humanity. Hollow Knight's protagonist explores a ruined kingdom, so that's similar. also, both canons feature small characters, it's just that 9's characters are size "like 8-12 inches" and Hollow Knight's characters are bug-sized. because they're bugs. though this is emphasized more with 9, since they're navigating human-sized ruins, while Hollow Knight's setting is sized appropriately, so the size difference is less noticeable.

also, i don't think i've seen the movie 9 in ten years, but i remember it being sad/having a bittersweet ending, and Hollow Knight has that in spades.

(side note with a comparison to a different fandom: 9 is not the only fandom i've been in with a theme around the number 9 and characters named after numbers. [points at Zero Escape: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors]. insert the meme about how if i had a nickel every time that happened, i'd have two nickels, which is not very many but it's a little weird that it's happened twice. both of them were released in 2009, but only 9 was lucky enough to release on 9/9/09.)

contrasts... well, aside from being in different mediums, the protagonist of 9 is a kind-hearted but naive character, trying to unite the other characters (i think? it's been like 10 years), while the protagonist of Hollow Knight is a silent protagonist. there's also a wider array of characters in Hollow Knight (though many are fairly minor), while i believe 9 is mostly limited to its 9-character cast.

this was a fun question!